Paula Deen covers the latest issue of Prevention magazine, where she talks about the backlash she received after announcing she had diabetes and her current mission to create healthy Southern recipes.

"I feel like I have been defending Southern cooking ever since I first stepped in front of the TV. I think the South really gets a bad rap, and it's unfair," Deen told the magazine. "I don't know anybody here who eats fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy every day. In the last ten years, I've been able to travel to all parts of the United States... I haven't been anywhere that eats more vegetables than we do in the South... I've tried to figure out why we get such a bad wrap, and I think it's because the food that totally represents the South has the word fried in it -- fried chicken, fried pork chops, country fried steak."

Deen also talked about her addiction to sweet tea and how she would consume a cup of sugar a day just through her favorite beverage.

"I would start drinking it at 11 o'clock in the morning, and it would be on my bedside table when I went to bed. I figured I was just consuming 1 cup of sugar a day just in my sweet tea."